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The authors state "The Growth Manager function typically lives at the intersection of marketing and product development..." I completely agree. This also makes it difficult to explain to others what I do. I have always believed the best marketing program is a great product. The rise of the Growth Hacker or Growth Manager (or whatever you call) it is the embodiment of that.

Is growth hacking just a form of user acquisition? No. But this is fairly common misconception that can take some work to dispel.

First, let’s define acquisition marketing. Organizations typically have one or more user acquisition teams. These professionals are experts in PPC, display, PR, or events etc. You build good user acquisition teams by hiring experts in their respective channels and keeping them focused in that domain.

In contrast, growth hacking is systems thinking with the lens of driving (nearly free) word-of-mouth which in turn will grow your customer base in an exponential fashion. You build good growth teams by hiring good systems thinkers.

Sean Ellis of GrowthHackers.com and the guy who coined the term! Great discussion on finding market-fit and more. Sorry for the off-center video. My camera got shifted mid-way and no one was checking it.

OK, I’ll admit it. I wasn’t a big fan of this term first time I heard of it. It seemed like just another term for user acquisition. Yet, a few years later I found myself accepting the title of Head of Growth at Yahoo. It wasn't entirely due to Sean Ellis' seminal post on the growth hacking. And it's not just because Growth Hacking has its own Wikipedia page now. So what changed? Before getting to that answer, let’s hone in on a definition of Growth Hacking. Which answer (below) do you think defines Growth Hacking?